In:Experimental Linguistics: Integration of theories and applications
Edited by Gary D. Prideaux, Bruce L. Derwing and Will Baker
[Studies in the Sciences of Language Series 3] 1980
► pp. 215–230
7. An experimental investigation of focus.
Published online: 1 January 1980
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssls.3.14and
https://doi.org/10.1075/ssls.3.14and
In the present experimental study, subjects were asked for direct judgements of the importance of words in a set of twenty sentences which varied systematically according to voice, dative position, and location of contrastive stress. These three sentence properties were considered to have possible focus roles. The results indicated that front-shifting, as occurs in passivization or dative movement, is a focus device, as is contrastive stress.
